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\ 

OUR TRIUMPH AND OUR NEW DUTIES. 



OEATION 



DELIVSBES BY 



CORTLANDT PAMER, ESQ., 



Bloomfield, N. J., July 4, 1865. 



NEWARK, N. J. : 

A. STEPHEN HOLBROOK, PRINTER. 

No. 3 Mechanic Street. 

1865. 






■'vOf-. 



CORTLANDT PARKER, Esq., Newark, N. J. 

Sir: 

We, citizens of Bloomfield, respectfully request a copy of your 
excellent Oration, delivered before us yesterday, for publication. 

In asking this, we desire to express our approval of the sentiments contained 
therein, and to say that we believe a more extended dissemination of them will 
contribute towards enlightening the public mind on questions which will soon 
come more prominently before it. We are, Sir, 
Very truly, 

Your obedient servants, 

Ira Dodd, 
A. Matthews, 
Horace Pierson, 
D. W. Smith, 
Bloomfield, July 5, IS 65. and others. 



Newark, July 8, 1865. 
Gentlemen : 

My Address became yours, from the moment of its delivery. It 
is therefore at your disposal. I shall be most happy if your kindly expressed 
views of its possible future usefulness be confirmed by experience. I am, 

Respectfully yours, 

CORTLANDT PARKER. 

Ira Dodd, A. Matthews, Horace Pierson, D. W. Smith, and others, 
citizens of Bloomfield. 



ORA.Tionsr. 



At last, after four years of horror, bloodshed, and alternate 
hope and despair, we celebrate the birth of the nation, with- 
out misgiving as to its life. We do it with hearts full of pious 
gratitude ; yet awe-struck, as we look back upon what we 
have escaped, and forward upon what we are yet to do, ere 
our triumph is complete. 

What Anniversaries are those we celebrated since that of 
1860 ! The first was one of unfounded confidence. The 
earthquake had only just yawned. We had not had time to 
plumb the depths it revealed. Treason had, so far, triumphed. 
Sumter had fallen ; and as its flag fluttered down the reveille 
of patriotism had been beaten, and the stupified North awaked 
to duty and energy. Seventy-five thousand men had hurried 
forward to the capital ; more were preparing to go. Disaster 
after disaster had befallen us, yet we attributed all to surpri- 
ses. Washington was beleaguered. The Potoniac could not 
be safely traversed. Lyon had saved Missouri, and perished. 
Kentucky was yet in doubt, so was Maryland, though the way 
across her territory was preserved. Big Bethel had taught us 
the folly of fighting battles under command of militia generals. 
Winthrop, and Greble, and Ward, and Lyon, were our best 
known martyrs. Europe sang jubilates over our follies and 
our defeats, Yet firm in our consciousness of right, resolved 
at all events to succeed, we acknowledged no defeat, and went 
to our first great battle, like the bridegroom to his chamber. 
We kept our Fourth, for the most part, as if we had only to 



reveal our real strength, and rebellion would slink dismayed 
away. 

And so, soon after the occurrence of this festal day, we 
marched to the fatal field of Manassas. Congress sat expectant 
of our triumph. With 20,000 men in reserve, within sound 
of the contending artillery, the great North was ingloriously 
defeated. It is curious, at this day, to look over the records, 
read the names of our commanders, and notice in whom we 
confided, so ignorant were we of men — so causelessly and 
ridiculously confident. Swaggering imbecility was our chief 
reliance. "Was there one Greneral, commanding at Bull Eun, 
who was ever afterward distinguished ? This battle, looked 
upon abroad as settling beyond reasonable question, the 
triumph of treason, we now see, sealed its doom. True, it 
extinguished unionism South, and it performed a corresponding 
ofl&ce at the North. It gave cowardice and treachery a hateful 
argument. It laid the foundation for the vile party spirit 
which since has so embarrassed patriotism. But it stimulated 
the principle of nationality, as the fall of Sumter had its mere 
sentiment. It informed the government and the people. It 
taught the magnitude of our task. Thenceforward the figlit 
was for life or death, and men were ready to give up every- 
thing, rather than lose the nation. 

Bull Eun was rebellion's opportunity. Had its army 
advanced, the capital must have fallen. It was so felt at the 
time. Three days after, I was at Washington. It was crow- 
ded with undisciplined soldiers. Consternation and disorder 
reigned. Eeasoning men knew that the panic-stricken forces 
of the Union would have retired in dismay, had Beauregard 
appeared on the other side the Potomac. It was on Wednes- 
day after the battle that an Aid to McDowell, who was asked 
if the city was safe, replied, " By to-morrow night it will be !" 

One of the greatest proofs of God's hand in the war, is 
afforded by the hesitation and delays, at that time, of the 
rebel generals. It seems, as we look back, amazing. Mary- 



land was in sjrmpatliy with them. The intrenchments of 
Washington were on one side only. Scott was unable to 
mount a horse. Our other generals were utterly without 
experience. Yet the rebel leaders permitted us to wait well 
nigh a year, gathering and disciplining our troops, them- 
selves far from their base, and surrendering every advantage. 
We may think what we please of the inefficiency of our 
leaders, and of many of them most correctly ; but it was nothing 
compared with that of their's. Had Stonewall Jackson led 
them then, God knows under whose Presidency we might this 
day be standing. 

But the sorrowful circumstances of July 4,1861,were nothing, 
compared with those of the same day in 1862. McClellan 
driven to action, but tedious and inert, taking no step as if he 
was sure of its success, had advanced from Yorktown, through 
Williamsburgh and Fair Oaks, to the very gates of Eichmond. 
The skill and bravery of his subordinates, especially Kearny 
and Hooker, had snatched victory twice out of the very jaws 
of ruin. The country, deceived by correspondents, and these 
successes, awaited, momentarily, the tidings of decisive vic- 
tory. Thus did all prepare to celebrate the day, when horror 
seized all minds, and faith in God almost quailed under the 
news of the terrific seven days' battle, which resulted in the 
inglorious establishment of the camp of our defeated army on 
the left bank of the James, and scattered soitow in every 
household. Ah ! in what gloom did we celebrate that day ! 
How little prospect was there that this would come ! Whose 
faith did not tremble? The miserable shifts with which 
incompetency strove to conceal disaster, at first sustained 
most. But the truth soon was revealed to all. The death of 
the nation was more imminent than ever. 

Up to this time, and longer still, the world was in arms 
against us and our cause. Skillful diplomacy, conducted abroad 
mainly by New Jersey's [greatest son, at home by the astute 
statesman still, spite of the assassin's knife, at the head of Foreign 



8 

Affairs, had warded off foreign Governmental intervention. 
But England's commerce perpetually intervened. Our foes 
lived on tier supplies, and carried on warfare with her munitions. 
France was more hypocritically, but not less really our foe. 
The lovers of freedom in both countries alone prevented 
recognition. They saw the apple of our discord. They saw 
that the success of the rebellion meant the perpetuation of 
human slavery ; its failure, its immediate destruction. This 
we saw too, but nevertheless hesitated. Deeply revering the 
letter of our Constitution, and at first unable to see clearly 
the difference between the powers it confers in war and peace ; 
embarrassed, too, by the presence among us of many who 
were ready to believe the abolition of slavery the object, 
instead of merely the necessary result of the war ; so situated 
that our government was compelled to move only in the van 
of advancing and supporting pubhc sentiment, the people and 
the President shrunk from the act which the Providence of 
God seemingly indicated a3 his end in the war, and which we 
now know was necessary to our success. And thus, without 
sympathy abroad, with factious opposition at home, our army 
shut up at Harrison's Landing, went on that dreadful summer. 
Then came Pope's campaign, and its successive disasters, with 
contemporaneous losses of heroic commanders, impossible to 
supply. Mitchell died of fever ; Kearny, not simply "bravest 
of the brave," but greatest of all his compeers in strategy and 
execution, fell at Chantilly. Defection and disobedience pro- 
duced disastrous defeat, and Pope gave way to McClellan. 
Then came the campaign of Sharpsburg and Antietam — the 
retreat of Lee across the Potomac — the pursuit by all our 
forces. And then, mightiest weapon of the war — at once array- 
ing on our side the sympathies of Europe — robbing the rebels 
of their slaves and their assistance — suppljdng for ourselves 
4,000,000 of allies in the very heart of the Confederacy — the 
Proclamation ! 

The history of this document we now know. It was medi- 



tated long and carefully. It was the offspring of the Presi- 
dent's own heart and mind; it is even said that it was the 
result of a pious vow. He alone was responsible for it, as he 
was for all great movements ; for never, since Washington, 
had we an Executive so independent of his Cabinet, as he. 
He consulted always, but determined himself On this occa- 
sion, he scarcely even consulted. His Ministers were asked 
their advice only as to its phraseology, and the time of its 
publication. A suggestion of Mr. Seward delayed it. It 
awaited a victory. That victory came at Antietam ; and then 
the thunderbolt was launched. Patriots trembled at the fac- 
tious wrath it caused. It insured the government temporary 
defeat at the polls ; but it was right. It cast away the scab- 
bard. Slavery said to the nation, " because thou wilt not 
worship me, thou shalt die." The government said to slavery, 
"thy death is the pimishment of thy traitorous rebellion." 
God smiled upon the announcement of a doom so just. The 
enslaved millions sang hallelujahs in their secret gatherings, 
and devoted themselves to aid the flag and its defenders. The 
traitors in the field saw their left arm lopped away, and all the 
peoples of the earth clapped their hands. 

How instantaneous was its effect abroad can be seen from 
one fact. Its date was September 22d. The steamer which 
passed the one which conveyed the Proclamation to England, 
brought us the news that Louis Napoleon had proposed to 
Victoria a joint interposition for peace. The next arrival told 
us that England declined it. There was no doubt why. The 
British Ministry dared not aid rebels, whose defeat was made 
synonymous with emancipation. 

Yet it was, beyond doubt, the measure which most hazarded 
popular confidence in Lincoln. Nor was it immediately fol- 
lowed by success. Bloody Fredericksburg, where Meade first 
lifted himself into view, finished the campaign of '62. Chan- 
cellorsville, where victory, it is said, was in our grasp, had the 
Commanding General had the nerve to seek it — the long series 



10 

of unsuccessful efforts, which Grant made to open the Missis- 
sippi and capture Yicksburg — these were sad indications of 
what we might hope from 1863. And how faction and treason 
triumphed and rejoiced ! How organized conspiracy burrowed 
and mined ! How foreign sympathy taunted and derided 
us ! How stout hearts and true, everywhere, trembled and 
prayed ! And then, shortly before the Fourth, (the move- 
ment timed, I shall ever believe, to act in unison with secret 
conspirators among ourselves, banded to make secession 
national, and substitute Davis for Lincoln,) came the invasion 
of Maryland and Pennsylvania. How rapidly the hordes of 
Lee overspread the dismayed country ! How boldly did the 
traitors boast that they would water their horses in the very 
Hudson ! How nearly, too, did they execute their threat ! 
Ah ! what a Fourth day of July was that of 1863 ! Who will 
ever forget it ? Seymour casting polished gibes and sneers at 
the failure and the dangers of the government, at request of 
the Common Council of New York ! Other such orators, 
throughout the land, discoursing, in kindred manner, while 
loyalty and right were for the most part silent ; waiting, 
with much foreboding, to see whether God could mean that 
a wicked rebellion should triumph. And lo ! while faction 
and treason openly denounced and sneered at the failures 
of the administration, or secretly made merry at what they 
termed its mishaps — while the secret councils of treasonable 
conspirators were plotting the resistance to law, which culmi- 
nated in the shocking riot, rapine and hell-copying, that soon 
after occurred in New York, and in the disorder and lawless- 
ness of Illinois, — at that moment, when men's pulses almost 
forgot to beat, the electric wires flashed through the country 
the glorious news of Gettysburg, and the land -was safe 
again. 

There are two events in this war (so full of illustration of an 
overruling Providence,) which stand out conspicuously and 
9,lmost like miracles, The one is the arrival of the Monitor 



11 

at Hampton Eoads, in time to encounter and defeat the Vir- 
ginia, — David against Goliath ; the other, the victory at Get- 
tysburg. 

At two o'clock, on the night of June 28th, when the very 
position of the large invading force was unknown, a new man 
was placed in command of the Army of the Potomac. Taking 
the command, in the fear of God, this new General, before only 
commander of a corps, sent forward his Lieutenants, soon en- 
dorsed and approved their choice of battle-field, and hurried up 
his scattered and wearied army to decide the fate of the country. 
For it was then plain to all the considerate, — it is even plainer 
now, — that had the traitors triumphed then, the Union would 
probably have perished. The contending forces were closely 
matched. Perhaps one slight incident saved the day and 
all. A corps commander had been ordered to hold a certain 
position, and defend a mountain which commanded our lines. 
Some accidental information created fear that there was a 
misunderstanding. Gen. Meade rode over to assure himself 
He found his orders not obeyed. At the moment, he perceived 
the enemy advancing to take advantage of the error. He 
hiirried up his reserves. The key-point hill was seized and 
held. And hence the victory of Gettysburg and the ruin of 
the rebellion. Thenceforward it went down! For, on the 
same glorious Fourth, Vicksburg was surrendered ! The Mis- 
sissipi was opened. The Confederacy was severed. And 
though Lee escaped across the Potomac, Meade cautiously 
preferring to hold his great advantage, and not to risk defeat 
by an attack upon an unknown fastness, the days of the Confed- 
eracy were numbered. Its fall was but a question of time. 

And little by little, never afterwards greatly victorious, the 
strength of this huge treason dwindled. Lee maneuvered, but 
was out-witted. Lee intrenched, but gained no advantage. 
Impatient patriots scolded, but prudence disbelieved their 
ravings. The domain of the Confederacy gradually contracted. 
The glorious end was certain. 



12 

But more blood was to be shed — more effort to be displayed. 
July 4, 1864, gave little ground for great rejoicings. True, 
Lee had retreated to Petersburg, and Grant had steadily 
advanced. Yet the loss of life was frightful, and men's hearts 
sickened within them. The last act of the drama was yet 
postponed. Neither Sherman at the South, or Grant at the 
North, had won decided advantage ; and the day was not, and 
could not be confidently celebrated. 

But doubt is gone now ! The land is one again ! With a 
suddenness almost incredible, the catastrophe has been pre- 
cipitated. Armies have melted like avalanches. Within 
thirty days, the Confederacy dissipated, and 

" Like the baseless fabric of a vision, 
Left not a wreck behind."' 

We stand, as amazed at its downfall, as at its birth. Its 
huge proportions overwhelmed us. Its instantaneous dissolu- 
tion awes us. We rejoice with trembling — " Not unto us, not 
unto us, but unto thy name give the praise, for thy loving 
mercy and for thy truth's sake. Our God, he is in Heaven. 
He hath done whatsoever pleased him. Oh ! house of Israel, 
trust thou in the Lord. He is our succor and defence. Ye 
that fear the Lord, put your trust in the Lord The Lord hath 
been mindful of us, and he will bless us. He shall bless them 
that fear the Lord — both small and great. The dead praise 
not thee, oh Lord ! — neither all they that go down into silence. 
But we will praise the Lord, from this time forth, forever 
more. Praise ye the Lord." 

Nor only the Lord will we praise ! Our hearts are full 
of gratitude. We will bless and extol forever the true and 
noble men, full of patriotism and heroism, who have been 
the instruments of the Almighty in this great work, and 
whose efforts have saved this great nation — hope of freedom 
and of the world — from swift perdition. 

First, and most of all, will we forever bless the name — alas ! 
that the man should be no longer with us — of the good, wise, 



13 

pure, iiumble-minded, brave, and duty-loving Abraham 
Lincoln : — our Moses, in this our pilgrimage ; and like Moses, 
only permitted to look at the reward he strove to gain. Better . 
than Moses, in that no aggravation provoked him to undue 
temper — no dark or sorrowful hour shook his faith in God and 
his justice — worthier rather to be classed with the great patri- 
arch whose name he bore, who went forth, not knowing 
whither he went, committing his way unto God, and looking 
only at present duty, "believed God." 

If will take ages, even among us whom his assassination 
roused to a perception of his merits, to enable mankind tho- 
roughly to appreciate the character of Abraham Lincoln. Its 
great element was righteousness. Intellectually, there lay his 
strength. Eead his arguments and State papers. You see no 
art, no effort at the skill of the rhetorician. What is percep- 
tible, is his desire first, to speak the truth ; next, to speak it 
clearly, so that all may understand. Examine his conduct. 
He was kind and friendly. He might lean sometimes towards 
a friend whom his guileless soul had proved ; but his constant 
aim was justice — doing right. He seldom used the phrase, 
for he despised even appearing Pharisaic. But banishing 
all thought of himself, unless, indeed, with childish simplicity, 
and humility, he sought to do his duty. Fearful to profess 
himself religious — prone to ease his cares with simple-hearted 
mirth — under his ungainly form, and untutored manners, there 
was a heart as full of Christian charity, that test of true reli- 
gion, and of the love of duty and readiness for self-sacrifice 
as ever beat in mortal breast. Had the wretch who took his 
precious life, offered it to him before he. struck, on condition 
of abandoning that struggle for the Union, to which he had 
unreservedly given himself, he would have simply smiled, and 
bared liis bosom for the welcome blow. It is difiicult to com- 
pare him with Washington. In one gi'eat point they were 
alike. Each loved to do his duty. There the resemblance 
ends. One was stately, solemn, slow — of but small creative 



14 

faculty, elegant in his tastes, moving in conscioTis superiority 
over his fellow men. He was a type of his time ; for the 
Eevolution was little more than a struggle of home aristocracy 
out of place, with foreign aristocracy in place — a struggle 
arising more from distance than difference. The enthusiastic 
Jefferson was suffered to incorporate in his Declaration the 
doctrine of political equality, but few subsequent acts of the 
men of '76, indicated that it was else than theory. But Lin- 
coln believed that doctrine. He knew its truth. He knew 
what he was equal to. He came from the people, and was 
proud of it. He was no greater, at last, than they. Station, 
with him, was not honor; it was duty. He was but the 
trustee for the people — their representative and personation. 
Hence his singular modesty — his study of the popular heart — 
his careful effort in timing all his acts, to keep just in advance 
of the people. It was right, and it was philosophic ; for the 
people rule, with us, in fact, as well as law. 

Both Washington and Lincoln excelled mankind in instinc- 
tive accuracy of judgment ; but here, intellectually, the parallel 
stops. Washington, as a statesman, had little aggressive abil- 
ity. Even his most important State papers were, according to 
the fashion of that day, penned by others. Not so with Lincoln. 
He permitted naught further than suggestion. His peculiar, 
quaint style, most like to the English of the days of Elizabeth, 
was his own ; and while the great ones of the earth smiled or 
sneered, the " common people heard him gladly ;" and, what 
he sought, understood him and followed him. But why pur- 
sue the parallel ? Washington was the man for his age. Li 
this he would scarcely have been valued. Lincoln, likest 
Franklin of all that day, might not have been then equally 
appreciated. But the world never produced a man so fitted 
to satisfy and sway the hearts of the common people of this 
day, as he ! 

And he is gone ! Gone, just (so it seems to me) when most 
necessary. Gone at the instant best, perhaps, for his fame. 



15 

but worst for us and for the nation ! The very South had 
learned to respect him. The North so revered him, that when 
he spoke or acted, men recalled their own opinions, and waited 
patiently, sure that he was right. And he was so kind, so 
just, so wise ! 

Yes ! we will bless thee, revere thee, love thee forever ! No 
matter where thy dust shall rest, thou hast thy home in every 
heart ! We bless God for thee ! We honor thy manliness, 
thy perpetual heroism, thy humble faith in right, and love of 
doing right ! If another gave us our country, thou hast saved 
it ! Best from thy toils, dear soul ! Thy funeral train will 
never cease. The world, till time shall end, will venerate thy 
name and memory, and weep at thy tomb, while in Heaven 
thou shalt reap the harvest of those who, following their Lord, 
die for their fellow men ! 

Nor while we weep over Lincoln's fall, and bless Heaven 
for his virtues and his life, will we forget to hallow the names 
of the thousands who have died the same death, murdered by 
the same wicked rebellion. We will not underrate the achieve- 
ments of those who survive. But war has been cruel indeed. 
Our dead heroes ! what a band, for number and for merit ! 
Passing the hundreds of less conspicuous names, what do we 
not owe to Mitchell, philosopher, orator and soldier : as skillful 
in strategy and audacious design as rapid and thorough in 
execution, who mapped the path since seized by Sherman • 
and to Lyon, saviour of St. Louis and Missouri, and to Kearny, 
our own Kearny, ever watchful for the foe and for his men, 
gifted with military prescience beyond all around him, resolv- 
ing like lightning, and rivaling the bolt in instantaneous 
execution ; never beaten, though the army in which he served 
met with nought but defeat ; looking and acting the soldier 
above all comparison, and whose very death sprang from a 
caution for his command which he never thought of for himself 
What do we not owe to Wadsworth, and Sedgewick, and Eey- 
nolds, and Reed, and Mansfield, and Buford, and McPherson, 



16 

and a host of others among our generals, slain or dying in this 
strife ? And what not to the many, many more, whose virtues 
and whose deeds are known and recited, each in a household of 
which he is the idol, where his memory is eating away the life of 
parent or wife, brother or sister, or other loving heart, more bur- 
dened because it is forbidden by worldly forms to publish its 
mourning ? Oh ! let us vow upon this happy day that the mem- 
ory of these martyrs to our cause shall never die nor fade. Let 
each State carve on some tablet where through all time they 
may be read, the names of her sons who are gone. Let each 
city and village, on the anniversary of this day, call the roll 
of those of her children whom she has given to their country, 
and as their names are uttered who have fallen, let the response 
of the Old Guard be made, " Dead on the field of honor." 

Nor, now or ever, will we forget the living heroes, returned 
among us, bronzed, scarred, or aged with patriotic labor. To 
those now here, in the name of the State and its citizens, do I 
return our public thanks. You have earned a gratitude which 
we can never sufiiciently display. Words cannot convey it. 
Welcome home ! that you may feel through all your lives 
how much of respect and regard you have won by hazarding 
yourselves for your country. There may be some who will 
make light of your labors and deserts, or think you foolish 
for the risks you have run. But with the wise, the good, the 
patriotic, the dusty and worn blue coat of the soldier is and 
will be a passport to sympathy, aid and protection in all that 
is right and desirable. 

I mast not forget to name the great leaders under whose 
care or guidance your victory has been won — leaders civic as 
well as military. Stanton, whose untiring energy and match- 
less executive ability, have never been appreciated, and, in fact, 
are scarcely appreciable ; who with one hand has clutched the 
throat of fraud and peculation, while with the other he hurled 
an unceasing storm upon the adversary. Seward, skillfully 
warding off Foreign interference — by nature a Diplomat, whose 



17 

prudence and sagacity have world-wide reputation ; and Chase, 
whose management in finance has brought the coantrj tlu'ough 
this crisis so prosperously that we can scarcely ourselves 
believe it. "Welles, too, should have our thanks — organizing 
so quietly, and with so little parade or even notoriety, a Navy 
so large and useful — while time will fail me only to repeat 
the names of those, who on land or sea, have immortalized 
themselves and their country. Farragut, Porter, Dupont, 
Worden, Boggs, Winslow, Cashing, Rogers, in the Navy, and 
Grant, Sherman, Meade, Thomas, Sheridan, Wright, Hancock, 
Howard, Logan, Stoneman, Wilson, Kilpatrick, Custer, in the 
army, are names with which the world is familiar. And yet 
even these are most famous rather from greater opportunity 
than desert. Indeed, heroism, for these four years, has been 
national. It has, by no means, been confined to the field. It 
has been everywhere. In families, where Abraham's faith 
was copied, and the only or the equally beloved son has been 
urged, rather than held back, from the altar of his country. 
In hospitals, where delicate womanhood has outdone all the 
past, in ministering to the sick, the wounded, and the dying. 
In the very seats of the money-changers, whence treasure has 
been poured forth at each new call, with a lavishness unprece- 
dented. At the Polls, where a more decisive victory was won 
than even at Five Forks or Nashville ; and a grander exhibi- 
tion of lofty patriotism. For history will say, as Europe was 
compelled to admit, that the quiet election of November last, 
was the most sublime sight mankind has ever beheld. It is 
not right to praise ourselves, but it is right to bless God for 
inspiring all our hearts so fully and so universally, with moral 
heroism, and the spirit of self sacrifice for the nation and the 
race. 

But, my friendsj this day is not simply for thanksgiving 
or congratulations. These indeed are indispensable. But 
our work is not yet done. The task of reconstruction is one 
which calls for the greatest wisdom, patriotism and prudence. 



18 

And it seems to me my duty to embrace tkis occasion, 
to express some views as to what patriotic men should re- 
quire in resettling and renewing the nation. 

And first, my friends, I submit that all good men should 
require the utter extirpation of Slavery. Slavery was 
the sole cause of the rebellion. Perhaps this is not entirely 
true. The ambition of Jefferson Davis and other Southern 
politicians who thought it " better to reign in hell, than serve 
in Heaven," was the immediately operative cause. But slavery 
was their lever. It supplied the sectional mind with its 
motive. It had, besides, created the difference between the 
characteristics of the North and the South. Mercy, the great 
poet of human nature says, 

" is twice blessed: — 
It blesses him that gives and him that takes." 

And so with its opposite. Habitual injustice, which is cruelty, 
is twice cursed. It curseth him that gives and him that takes. 
And thus, for ages, slavery was carsing the Southern mind 
and heart, brutalizing it and making it barbarous. Thereby the 
South was haughty, proud and belligerent. Money -worship- 
ping among the multitude and place-worshipping among 
politicians, made the North, for the most part obsequious to 
the victims of slaveholding, and so these characteristics in 
each section went on increasing each other, till the South 
despised us; and those they judged us by, the politicians and 
the traders whom they used, deserved their contempt. Then, 
again, slavery made labor dishonorable. Its absence, dignified 
it Therefore, at the South, poor whites were lazy and ignorant 
tools of the aristocratic ; while, at the North, aristocracy was 
impossible, and the multitude hated the principles and 
characters of the Southern leaders. And hearts blessed by 
freedom, refused at last to aid in extending human slavery. 
So, ere we knew it, we were two peoples. Slavery was 
responsible for this fact. An outbreak one day, we can now 



19 

see, was irremediable. Slavery and freedom could not agree. 
They were in "irrepressible conflict.'" 

If then we would renew the nation, we must extirpate 
slavery with all the shoots and branches of the accursed tree. 
Its nature makes it the necessary enemy of our nationality, 
or any nationality which itself does not control. It cannot 
act on the theory that the majority must govern. The nation 
had to be all free or all slave ; and blessed be Grod, it is all 
free ! 

Now, spite of the war and the proclamation, it ?n ay exist. Its 
breath is not gone. It is susceptible of renewed life. It lives 
through State Sovereignty and the guaranties of the Constitu- 
tion, and only a new Constitution can dash out its brains and 
life forever. Hence the need of the amendment to the Consti- 
tution, passed already by almost all the loyal States; rejected, 
alas ! to our great shame, by New Jersey. 

If some man says I am talking party politics and desecrat- 
ing this holy day — I answer, more shame for him and those 
who strive to make such a question a party one. The lover of 
the Union, the foe of rebellion, the advocate of the doctrine 
that this is a nation, and not a simple confederation, must 
talk such politics. You might as well say that a party could 
adopt the right of secession as part of their platform, and thus 
interdict good men from discussing it on such a day, as say 
that their adopting the motive of secession, slavery, should 
shut our mouths when our necessary theme is the escape of 
the nation from ruin, and the destruction of its enemies. 

No one wants slavery to continue except rebels and those 
who sympathise with them — or who cried, hold off, you cannot 
conquer them. And the cry of those who stand by it is the 
same which the nation in arms has been fighting. '• State 
Rights ! — this is a subject left and which must be left to each 
state alone ; there is no right to pass an amendment to the 
Constitution on this subject." 

There is no limit, on the correct theory of the Constitution, 



20 

to the extent to which amendments to the Constitution regu- 
larly made, are binding, on any topic not entirely foreign 
to civil law. The people of this land are sovereign, and 
they have the right to lodge their sovereignty in such 
governmental representatives as they please. They have 
made a double deposit of their sovereignty. So far as re- 
gards local matters, they have lodged it in state governments. 
So far as regards national matters, they have lodged it in the 
national government. And they have the righi to confer upon 
the governments they create powers on any subject incidental 
to human society. Or, to express it in ordinary phrase, they 
have the right to introduce any provision in their great funda- 
mental social compact, restrictive of any rights capable of ac- 
quisition. They had a right to say and they did say, in the 
Constitution that certain powers should reside in the general 
government, and certain others remain with the States. If 
they choose they can, following prescribed forms, alter their 
will in this respect. Following prescribed forms, I say, for 
that is necessary. They have contracted only thus, to bestow 
their sovereignty. And when their will is thus altered, it is 
as if it were so from the first. 

This is implied in the clause introduced into the Constitu- 
tion for the purpose of restricting the construction of power. 
It is itself an amendment. It provides that "the powers 
not delegated to the United States by this Constitution, nor 
prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States re- 
spectively or to the people.'" But one provision was for 
amendments. That could only be in several ways. It might 
be by a repeal of power granted to the United States without 
lodging it elsewhere, or by such a repeal, lodging it elsewhere, 
or by a conferring of more power on the United States Gov- 
ernment, in which case it might be taken from the States, just 
as at the beginning, or from the people. The very fact of res- 
ervation combined with the power of amendment, confesses 
authority on the part of the people through an amendment, 



21 

to give up or alter or change the deposit of any powers so 
reserved. 

To apply these principles to the question which suggests 
their consideration. A new amendment is proposed — to wit that 
involuntary servitude shall be forever abolished. Is that a topic 
germane to civil government ? No one will dispute but what 
it is, since such servitude only can exist through civil govern- 
ment. God made all men free. Power makes some men 
slaves, but confers no right to hold them so. That men 
do through government. The framers of the Constitution 
scorned to stipulate for such right in the Constitution 
of a nation created from love of freedom. They found 
the right created by State authority. They left it so. But 
they had the right then,— the sovereign people had, — to take 
from the State (or from themselves in the exercise of their 
sovereignty through the States,) the power to hold part of 
their fellow creatures — their fellow citizens — Slaves. And if 
they had, they have it still, provided only that they do it in 
the way they agreed to do it, through an amendment passed 
first by Congress and ratified by a majority of the States 
in legislature assembled. 

It is astonishing that men should raise a doubt on this topic. 
What is an amendment ? It is the provided way of making 
a new Constitution. And cannot the sovereign people of this 
Union, who agreed thus to express their will, do it whenever 
they choose ? 

Observe, too, that the Constitution itself shows that the 
people considered this topic within their reach. It provides 
for legislation to secure the master his fugitive slave. This 
in favor of slavery. Again, it provides that the " migration 
or importation of such persons as any of the States now exist- 
ing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited to 
Congress prior to 1808," — a clause which admits the right of 
prohibiting it afterwards, as has been done ; and which is a 
regulation of property in slaves. Thus the Constitution treats 



22 

the holding of slaves as a subject to be regulated. And if 
the will of the people can make a National Constitution help 
secure slaves, cannot the same will, Constitutional forms 
observed, secure their freedom ? Is the sovereignty of a free 
people, only competent to rivet human chains, powerless to 
knock them off? Forbid it reason, justice. Almighty Grod ! 
whose decree has gone forth, as glorious as that which gave 
light to the world — " let the captive free !" 

Fellow-citizens, I rejoice while yet I grieve and blush that 
this subject should be so practical a one with Jerseymen. I 
grieve and blush because a New Jersey Legislature has, by a 
party vote, rejected this glorious amendment, and I rejoice 
because that act has devolved upon the people, on you and 
on me, the responsibility of deciding finally whether or not 
this vile cause of strife, this crying injustice, this stigma on 
the fame of our fathers, this blot upon our Constitution, shall 
or shall not be wiped away. The vote of New Jersey is 
almost certain to decide the question for the Union — to settle 
whether millions of men shall again be bondsmen. Men, over 
a hundred thousand of whom have risked their lives in sup- 
port of our laws. Men, many thousands of whom have 
actually died for our flag, and many thousands more have 
bled for it. Men, who have protected, fed or guided our brave 
boys escaping from the horrid torments of rebel prisons ; — 
have piloted our generals to victory, saved them from defeat, 
never been otherwise than faithful to us. Men, whom rebellion 
against us has gifted with freedom ; and who exult to-day 
with the innocence, gayety and helplessness of children, in its 
possession. Men, for whose emancipation all civilization 
rejoices, and to which even traitors now consent. It is, I say, for 
New Jersey — New Jersey, thousands of whose sons have been 
murdered by slavery, using the hands of those who avowedly 
fought for it, to settle — for us, each one of us, men and breth- 
ren, to help settle, whether this serpent, slavery, shall or shall 
not be strangled and forever destroyed ! I feel there can be 



23 

but one result. The sons of New Jersey will stand on the 
side of civilization, freedom, their country and their God, If 
they do not, let us change our State or our name ! 

But, fellow citizens, this is not all which, in the process of 
reconstruction, devolves upon us in this matter of Slavery. It 
must not merely be excised. It must not merely be forever 
prevented. The ramifications of the cancerous virus must be 
pursued, dragged out or neutralized. And that for our own- 
safety as well as for justice. 

American slavery not only chained individuals ; it fettered 
a race. It disgTaced a physical formation. Those who sup- 
port it claim, boldly, to define the intention of the Almighty, 
and subject all born on a particular continent below a certain 
degree of latitude, nay, all who with whatever admixture, 
share their blood, to the ban of involuntary servitude. If 
individuals were freed, that did not give them equality before 
the law. They were not citizens. Their oath cannot be taken. 
They are placed under guardianship. Poverty re-enslaves 
them. So may breach of several technical laws, and suffrage 
is wholly denied them. This is the state of the 4,000,000 now 
in the South. Shall we leave them so ? These only loyalists, 
shall we leave them to be governed by those against whom 
they have rebelled ? or rather whose rebellion they had with- 
stood ? Shall we endue them with no right except freedom ? 
Are we safe^ is the Union safe, withdrawing its armies and 
navy, leaving those to support it, whose lives have been given 
for four years to its destruction ? 

This subject is full of painful interest and not unmixed with 
difficulty. It involves both power and policy. But I cannot 
think the day well spent without venturing its brief 
discussion. And, first, I remark, that State governments 
do not now subsist in the lately rebellious States. The Consti- 
tution of the United States requires every State officer, from 
the Governor down, to swear to maintain it. That oath is 
essential. Yet the present State officers have not only not taken 



24 

it; they have sworn to destroy it, have taken an oath of 
allegiance to a pseudo government whose life was only possi- 
ble through the death of ours. Clearly, then, the States are 
without legal officers. 

But further than this, their present Constitutions and laws 
deny the authority of the National Constitution, and admit and 
assert that of its enemy ; and require all officers to swear and 
bear allegiance to it. Then, have they Constitutions ? Certainly 
none, which are operative. They cannot operate without pro- 
ducing rebellion. If it is said that the old Constitutions re- 
main, it can be also said that they require governmental ac- 
tion to set their functions in motion. The situation is, at least, 
what would have occurred had the people of a State, after 
legally creating its Constitution, neglected for years to elect 
officers under it. Some authority must set the wheels in 
motion. 

If you say, recognize the old Constitution and start the 
wheels, I answer, that could not be without calling on men 
who have sworn or recognised allegiance to another Constitu- 
tion, to use the machinery of this. The State Constitutions as 
they exist, provide certain requisites to suffrage ; omitting, en- 
tirely, to specify that open rebellion disfranchises ; while it is 
plain no Convention could have meant that traitors to a Consti- 
tution should hold its offices or reap its privileges. Yet all who 
fought against the United States are in each State traitors against 
the State Constitution, for that requires allegiance to the United 
States. If a State has no right to secede, every traitor to the 
Union was a traitor to his State. This is an important truth, 
recognized by the laws of New Jersey. They define treason 
as consisting not only in levying war upon the State, but up- 
on the United States. And they are right. Our temple of 
liberty is a structure of composite parts. Its foundations are 
the universal equality and brotherhood of man. Its walls and 
lofty dome enclose, guard, defend and confine the States, 
while they, like mighty pillars, uphold the dome and strengthen 



25 

all. But thej, blind Samsons, who strive to tear them away 
and make them hostile to the noble building of which they 
were a part, made war thereby not only on the nation which 
the building represents, but on the States themselves. It 
would have been a revolution as regards the Union, but not 
less one against State authority. Conventions of the people 
were therefore plainly necessary, either to frame a new Consti- 
tution or re-adopt and renew the animated existence of the old. 

Conventions of the people ? But who are the people ? 
Who shall determine who are the people ? Enemies, resident 
within State borders, are not its people; not even, though 
they profess repentance and friendship. Citizens of foreign 
lands therein resident are not of the people, confessedly. Are 
those who have deliberately abjured their citizenship, and 
whom legal authority has not restored ? 

Who are the people ? All citizens of the States, who have 
not abjured their allegiance to the old Constitution of their 
State — the Constitution which acknowledged the United 
States, — by deliberately, and as citizens, making war upon 
the National Government. 

But practically the most important inquiry is, who is to 
determine who are the people ? That must be settled by supe- 
rior authority, or by circumstances. Had there been no rebel- 
lion, and no government heretofore, some persons would have 
spontaneously congregated, formed their Constitution, and the 
rest would have accepted and lived under it. But that is not 
now safe. Or if it be, it is not the best way. It is the most 
likely to promote future strife. And so we cannot reflect upon 
the matter without seeing, the actual State government having 
become unlawful, being actually rebellious, that the proper, 
and in fact, the necessary way is for the government, which 
they say has conquered them, to accept the situation, and 
determine who shall be regarded as the people of the State, 
and form its new Constitution. 

Who should be designated as the people? None, who 



26 

helped organize the rebellion ; none, I think, who participated 
in it, whatever their present penitence. No matter how many- 
are excluded, no matter how few included. None should be 
suffered to vote who are not loyal to the State, and ready to 
accept the new destiny of the South, a land where hereafter 
there cannot breathe a Slave. Such men will amend the laws 
of the State so that Slavery will disappear in deed as well as 
in name ; so that color will no longer disgrace ; so that our duty 
to those who have helped save us, may be done. I will not 
enter here into the question of negro suffrage, except to say 
that it is in my mind a mere question of policy. No man has 
a right merely as a human being and morally, to exercise the 
right of suffrage. Some government there must be. They 
only should be entrusted with it, who are capable of exercis- 
ing it. It is wrong to give the right of suffrage to the incap- 
able ; as much so as to give it to the wicked. If a man does 
not know how to govern himself or take care of himself, shall 
he nevertheless have the power of governing those who do ? 
When we exclude minors, lunatics, criminals, unnaturalised 
foreigners, the female sex, we admit this doctrine to be right. 
That the blacks are now competent, as a general rule, for suf- 
frage, I do not believe. And though there are classes of men 
now voting, of whom the same might be said, does that alter 
the question ? That many of the blacks are now competent 
for suffrage, I also believe. Color should not exclude them any 
more than red hair or any other physical mark of a race. Fix 
a rule which will include as nearly as possible, all who are 
fit to vote, and exclude as nearly as possible, all who are unfit. 
That is the correct principle. And if the rule excludes any, 
let it not be for a reason* which they cannot help. For my- 
self, if the agitation of this subject should tend to induce the 
adoption of the principle that no man should vote who cannot 
read and write, and that all citizens of the United States who 
knew how to read and write, without regard to color or lineage, 
should vote, a step in advance would be gained, worth much 
of the toil, treasure and suffering of the last four years. 



27 

And one thing more I will say, if it is apparent before the 
work of reconstruction is complete, that in order to protect the 
people of color in the South, they or any of them should 
be allowed to vote, it is within the power of the govern- 
ment to do it, and it should be done. The disloyal may be 
dissatisfied. If so, it is rather a reason for, than against the 
measure. But justice and our own safety demand that these 
poor, helpless, ignorant, innocent people shall not again be en- 
slaved, either under the law, or, as may easily be done, by 
legalizing social antipathies and establishing unrighteous in- 
equalities, in spite of the law emancipating them. 

And, at the risk of fatiguing you, my friends, I feel it right 
to pursue the subject of our duty to the colored people of the 
South a little farther. Fully to appreciate what I would say, 
it is perhaps essential to go among them and study them.. 
Many of you know that although always desirous of their 
Emancipation, I never was, indeed I formerly abhorred being 
called an abolitionist. I never regarded Slavery as 'per se sin- 
ful, any more than holding an apprentice. The one makes men 
masters of a portion of another's life ; the other of the whole. 
Whether the slaveholder was a sinner in that regard or not, de- 
pended. I have thought, on each particular case. If he sold them ; 
if he encouraged vice among them ; if he neglected them ; if he 
failed to regard them as possessed of souls like his own, and 
did not teach them, improve them, work for their salvation in 
the other world, and for their highest happiness in this ; if, in a 
word, sustaining a relation of guardianship, as nearly as pos- 
sible equivalent to the parental, he failed to discharge its ele- 
vated duties, then he was a sinner, at whose hand God would 
require a fearful reckoning. And what we have seen and read 
of Southern slavery, impresses one most painfully in this view 
of the matter. The laws and social life of the South have 
been framed with the plain intent to put back and keep back 
this whole race in the scale of moral and intellectual being, and 
most deplorably have they succeeded. As a general thing they 



28 

are wholly unfit for self-dependence. They wander about the 
neighborhood of their homes, as horses suddenly released from 
the stalls might stray near them, with no more thought for the 
future, little more care for the present, or apparent benefit from 
the past. They eat what they can readily find, but when they 
do not find, they starve. Disease strikes them, and they die 
like sheep, while the living stare helplessly upon them, 
unconscious till death comes that it is near. The mortality 
and disease among them is fearful. It is just as if families of 
children were deserted ; not a particle better. You talk to 
them of wprk, and they think you mean, after all, to deny them 
liberty. You talk to them of self-advancement and for the 
most part, they are as ignorant of what you say or as incapable 
of resolving it, as your children. One thing they do appreciate ; 
and the contemplation of the fact, stirred me even more to anger 
with the vile system, and its promoters than almost any one thing 
besides ; they do appreciate the privilege of knowledge. Their 
anxiety to learn to read is wonderful. The young, middle- 
aged, old, all are busy with the spelling-book. The old pray 
to be able to read the word of God. The middle-aged see 
in knowledge a mysterious talisman whereby they will be 
equal to their former masters — the young are inspired by the 
example of their seniors. In a village at Hilton Head contain- 
ing 3,000 blacks, there are twenty schools. How atrocious 
the system, which, with the intent to perpetuate itself, has 
shut the door of knowledge to a whole race, so anxious to have 
it opened ! How equally atrocious the allegation on the part 
of its upholders, they first doing their best to make it so, that 
the race is naturally so inferior, as to be unfit for freedom and 
for progress! Give these poor benighted ones, light — the 
light of God's word, not only, but the light of knowledge ; 
wait till their dim bleared eyes grow used to the sudden gush 
of the blessed sun— nurse them, for our laws have for 
centuries kept them as children — let them be educated, in 
schools, but better yet by the possession of privileges, and 



si 

responsibilities — let them see themselves able to win respect, 
notwithstanding their atrocious crime of a skin darker than 
our own — treat them, if you will, as inferiors, but as inferiors 
ought to be treated, with kindness, with encouragement, with 
Christian charity, not with haughtiness, obloquy and contempt. 
Do all this, it is our duty. It is but what gratitude demands. 
It is what self preservation requires. For Eebellion, be it 
remembered, was Slavery ; the haughty spirit of caste which 
slavery necessitates. And its utter extirpation is necessary 
to a cloudless future. 

But these reflections are not what I wished particularly to 
make. There is an especial duty — a great duty — and a great 
charity now devolved upon us. It is to care for and regulate 
these helpless millions ; to see that they have their freedom 
indeed ; to help them to grow worthy of it ; to educate them to 
self dependence, to protect them against wrong. Government 
which usually leaves men to take care of themselves, simply 
protecting them against aggression, has a positive duty to 
discharge here, akin to that of popular education, outside of the 
Constitution, but not in breach of it. How it is to be discharg- 
ed, I leave to wiser heads. Its difficulties may be mastered by 
study and patience. The law establishing a Bureau for freed- 
men is a step, perhaps a complete one, in the right direction. 
It must be sustained and followed up. And voluntary enter- 
prise, so nobly exerted in the Sanitary and Christian Com- 
missions and various other associations springing from and 
dying with the war, must exert itself in this channel, a duty 
more incumbent upon us than any kindred one with which 
we have been familiar. 

Thus far I have called your attention to our duties to our- 
selves, and the race, to keep whom in assured subjugation 
treason attacked the authority of law, and the being of the 
nation, I now invite it to our duty towards those who have 
committed the great crime of rebellion. 

Of these there are several classes, all guilty before the law, 



30 

but widely differing, morally. There are the politicians who 
conspired and plotted secession. There are the men of intelli- 
gence who for selfish motives aided them in bringing it about 
or afterwards in carrying it on. There are the officers of our 
own army who deserted their flag and carried skill which they 
owed the nation to the service of those who sought its de- 
struction. There are the misguided multitudes, who, deceived 
by the idea that secession was legal, opposed it as causeless, 
but felt bound to go with their States. There are the still 
greater multitudes who were induced by poverty, ignorance or 
excitement to enlist, or were conscripted and driven to take up 
arms against us. And, among all these, are to be found men 
who carried on the war with cruelty and outrage, either in the 
army or directing it. 

There is little difficulty in deciding what to do with most of 
these. There has been no motive but legal necessity prompt- 
ing the North. Foreign sympathisers with the enemies of the 
Constitution, have charged us with making war for territory. 
If we did, it was for our own territory, in virtue of our alle- 
giance, and in obedience to its requisitions. It was in mainte- 
nance of law that we fought ; and we fought without animosity, 
nay, sorrowing perpetually that it should be so. Therefore, 
in spite of all we have suffered, we have for those innocent of 
evil intention, or who obeyed a mistaken sense of duty, nothing 
but mercy. True, we must guard ourselves against similar 
conduct on their part, hereafter. Therefore, their pardon 
should be conditional — especially to aid in destroying the soli- 
tary cause of strife between us. But they have expiated their 
offence, and we take them by the hand again as brethren, won- 
dering only how they could have so hated and fought u.s. But 
as to those who entered upon this great crime with evil intent, or 
who carried it on with ferocity and cruelty, what are we to do ? 
That is one of the great questions of the hour — a question fit 
to be spoken of on this happy day, when we stand here prais- 
ing God for our deliverance, and rejoicing over renewed peace. 



31 

I would speak calmly, charitably and justly on this topic. 
I have endeavored carefully to consider what has been said 
and written, by friends and enemies on both sides of the water, 
respecting it. And, it seems to me, the answer to my question 
is plain, if we are true to our allegiance, and recognize it as a 
duty. Those guilty in this thing, morally as well as legally — 
those who sought the death of the nation, without a wrong to 
complain of, with none to anticipate, with none to imagine, 
against which they did not possess the power of prevention — 
who sought it for selfish motives, either personal ambition or 
a desire to perpetuate the right of property which they called 
slavery — those who meanly and secretly conspired, while 
enjoying public position and honor and influence, to ruin this 
great nation, the acknowledged hope of freedom, religion, and 
the world — such men should be punished, or else all connec- 
tion between guilt and punishment should forever be done 
away. Else tear down your prisons, bury the gallows, and 
blot from the statute books every law which affixes punish- 
ment to crime. 

Look at this little waif, taken from the letter-file of the 
chief of these conspirators, and judge respecting his guilt : 

" Selma, (near Winchester, Va.,) Sept. 80, 1856. 
"My Dear Sir: — I have a letter from Wise, of the 27th, 
full of spirit. He says the governments of North Carolina, 
South Carolina, and Louisiana, have already agreed to the 
rendezvous at Ealeigh, and others will — this in your most pri- 
vate ear. He says further, that he had officially requested 
you to exchange with Virginia, on fair terms of difierence, 
percussion for flint muskets. I don't know the usage or power 
of the Department in such cases ; but, if it can be done, even 
by liberal construction, I hope you will accede. Was there 
not an appropriation, last session, for converting flint into per- 
cussion arms ? If so, would it not furnish good reason for 
extending siich facilities to the States ? Virginia, probably, 
has more arms than the other Southern States, and would 
divide in case of need. In a letter, yesterday, to a Committee 
in South Carolina, I gave it as my judgment, in the event of 
Fremont's election, the South should not pause, but proceed 



32 

at once to 'immediate, absolute, and eternal separation.' So I 
am a candidate for the first halter. 

" Wise says his accounts from Philadelphia are cheering for 
old Buck, in Pennsylvania. I hope they be not delusive. 
" Vale et Salute, 

"J. M. Mason. 
"Colonel Davis." 

"What have we here ? A Secretary of War, in 1856, con- 
spiring with a United States Senator, and the Governor of 
Virginia, as well as the Governors of Louisiana, North Caro- 
lina and South Carolina, to make war on the United States, 
unless their candidate was elected President ! Having corres- 
pondence about arms, and about using his office as Secretary 
of War to furnish arms to Virginia for such a war ! All this 
as long ago as 1856, and in acknowledged risk of the halter ! 
And over this volcano men slept four years, while its fires 
never cooled. No eruption occurred, because these conspi- 
rators were still in power. But when they ceased to be, or 
rather when the}^ saw it likely to cease, their old resolution 
was executed, and this eminently peaceful, peace-loving 
and happy country, was deluged with the most horrid war 
over which humanity ever groaned, carried on by its authors 
with a ferocity disgraceful to humanity. And now, with a 
Constitution which creates and defines treason, and a law 
passed under it affixing its punishment, are all these conspi- 
rators, without one particle of extenuation for their crime, who 
meditated their treason longer, and executed it with more 
boldness, skill, and success than mankind ever knew, to go 
unhung ? 

It is said that this treason was on too grand a scale, and for 
a long time too successful — that it compelled us to treat with 
the rebels as belligerents, and recognize the strife as civil war. 
What of that ? It is a strange thing to say that if the rebel- 
lion had been unsuccessful in taking Sumter, and immediately 
repressed, it would be right to punish its contrivers, but inas- 
much as it became almost invincible — would have been to any 



33 

nation but our own — it is wrong. ' And as to our treating them 
as ordinary enemies, that did not change their status, nor was 
it so regarded. It was a step of necessity, which deprived us 
of no right. When nations have acted thus, it was through 
fear and policy, not justice. Thank God ! these motives need 
not affect us. 

It is said that other nations have taught us lessons in this 
matter and various instances are referred to. The deaths of 
Charles I. and Louis XVI., executions under the forms of 
law, but against law, by successful rebels, are no parallels where 
the question is what shall be d6ne with wicked, unsuccessful 
rebels by the government they meant to ruin. Nor dods the 
opinion of mankind respecting the remorseless cruelties of 
Eussia and Austria, of Cromwell in Ireland, of the Kings of 
France and Spain, at all establish that unjustifiable rebellions 
should take place, and no one be punished. 

It is said that we shall lo'se sopae of the good opinion we 
have now abroad if we execute the- law. Let it go. Why should 
we care about opinion abroad. They cannot understand us, 
or will not, if they can. And they draw no lines between 
cases where men rebelled in order to be free, or to remove 
a grievance, and when they had no peaceful remedy, and cases 
where men rebel that they niay not be molested in their reso- 
lution to keep 4,000,000 of people and their descendants slaves, 
when they had no grievance, and if they had, possessed a 
remedy. 

These pleas come either from dreamy humanitarians, or 
secret or open syinpathisers with the defeated rebels. But 
Humanitarianism is not philanthropy, and as to foreign friends 
of Davis and the Confederacy, let them howl ! In my mind, 
we should share the guilt of traitors, did we not punish 
treason. That is law. Our allegiance requires the efforts of 
every man, to detect, arrest and punish traitors, as much as to 
quell them in the field. And we are untrue to it, if we let a 
silly sentiment or the wishes of others, deter us from our duty. 



34 

The magnitude of the rebellion does make one difference. 
We cannot punish all. But is that a reason when there 
are degrees in guilt, that its wicked plotters should not 
suffer ? 

Oh ! my friend, whose eyes are ready to overflow in sym- 
pathy with any man in distress, who was it that killed 
your son ? that brave boy who was murdered as he rode, 
unattended through our lines ? Who starved those other 
boys, inch by inch, till their poor lives ebbed away in prison, 
or almost worse, were returned to perish, vainly seeking to 
swallow the niceties your eager love pressed upon them ? 
Who shot those others at the windows, up to which they 
dragged their wasted limbs to take one more look at the free 
sun of their native land ? Who killed those poor fellows at 
the dead-line, to which they tottered in suicidal despair, mad 
through protracted starvation and exposure ? Who massacred 
at Fort Pillow ? Who made cups and rings of skulls and 
bones which belonged to oar children ? From whose wicked- 
ness has come that ocean of blood which covers the land? Who 
made Virginia a charnel house ? Who strewed her fair 
valleys with gallant dead ? Who purdered those five hundred 
thousand, who on the field, or in the dreary hospital, have 
died through this wanton, wicked rebellion ? Ye wounded 
and maimed, ye shattered consumptives, ye victims of fever 
and diarrhoea, dragging your unhappy days along, in hourly 
prayer for death, ye prisoners, not of hope, who have come back 
to us, unable to live through privation and despair, ye 
myriads who mourn all this, wives, children, parents, brothers, 
sisters, friends, who are responsible for this production on 
earth of the malice and misery of the damned ? Do we not 
know ? Did not Davis and Wigfall and Toombs and Slidell 
and Benjamin and Breckenridge and Miles and Pickens and 
Keitt and Cobb and Floyd and Wise and many more of 
accursed fame conspire to bring it about? Have they not 
carried on the strife with every meanness which Satan could 



35 

devise, by plotting the d^tnlction of cities by secret incen- 
diarism, by. raids from neutral stores of disguised spies upon 
peaceful villages, by piratical surprises and captures on the sea, 
by villianous attempts to cast the rushing rail road train from 
its track, by torpedoes strewed through evacuated positions, 
sunk in rivers, buried in lines of approach which were sur- 
rendered or abandoned, by foal conspiracies to devastate our 
cities, with riot and rapine ? And, if it be true that the last 
dread act of mean atrocity was not directly approved by the 
usurpers at Richmond, is it not true that its principle was the 
same and no worse than that of many acts which were ap- 
proved ? Morally, was not the assassination of Lincoln the act 
of those who hatched the rebellion and the spiteful hellishness 
of which it was the parent? And shall such conspirators 
escape ? Shall they shelter their crime behind its fearful 
success ? 

If I know myself, these sentiments are the result of no vin- 
dictiveness. But a large opportunity of observation has pro- 
duced the conviction that indiscriminate mercy is public cruelty. 
True justice and true mercy are identical. Humanitarianism, 
I repeat, is not philanthropy. Justice must wield the sword, 
as well as hold the scales. Punishment should follow crime. 
In the natural world it does, infallibly. It should be measu- 
rably so, in society. 

The case is new. It is vain to look to precedent. Every 
rebellion heretofore has been an outburst of the popular heart, 
aspiring for liberty against slavery, and which had no remedy 
or escape save the forcible rupture of the bonds of society. 
The noble Hollanders underwent all miseries, fighting for their 
religion and the immunities given by their long estabhshed 
laws. The cruelties of Philip and Alva, are therefore odious 
to all mankind. Washington and his compatriots fought for 
untrammelled liberty and announced to mankind that the strife 
was to establish the political equality of man. Poland, Hun- 
gary, the Jacobites in England, all rushed to arms for privileges 



36 ; 

and law, when war was the only remedy. But these con- 
spirators, without a wrong, broughli upon this Country its 
terrible fate, when the laws gave: them full remedy, and they 
themselves possessed the majority in Congress, in order to per- 
petuate slavery ! What precedent is there in the past, unless 
it be that of Catiline ? Not even Ceesar, himself subsequently 
triumphant over his country's liberties, begged mercy for Mm. 
He spoke only for the wild youths who were the victims of 
his arts ; and not so much for them, as against the assumption 
of judicial power over them by the Roman Senate. And if 
we would prevent rebellion and treason, it must be treated as 
crime and disgraceful punishment follow its commission. It 
is said that Andrew Jackson regretted to his dying day that 
he did not hang John C. Calhoun, and in view of the past four 
years, it may well be doubted whether his regret was not well 
founded. 

There are three great blessings which these dreadful years 
have brought us. The destruction of slavery ; the annihila- 
tion of miscalled State Rights and the thorough establishment 
of the doctrine of nationality ; the recognition of the duiy of 
allegiance, baptising it in blood, and hallowing it by the 
memory of the prodigious sacrifices it has cost. Of these 
three, the last is probably most important ; and it is necessary 
to its completeness ; — that the holy sentiment that one owes all 
to his country, and sins most when he lifts his hand against 
her, should sink deep into the hearts of our children and their 
posterity — that the disgraceful death of a felon should follow 
this worst of felony. 

But it is time to close. My topics are inexhaustible, but I 
must not abuse your patience. Let us keep this happy day — 
first birth-day after the re-union of a dissevered nation- — as 
men should who are saved — saved as by fire. Let there be 
bonfires and illuminations, festivity and mutual congratula- 
tion, but sobriety withal. And let there be tears, manly 
tears, of gratitude to Almighty God, who has kept his cove- 



37 

nant whicli he sware unto our fathers, and given us a richer 
heritage, even the heritage of universal freedom ; of grief as 
we think of the hosts of noble men whose lives have been 
given for us, and of sympathy for those chiefly interested in 
their death; yet of grief mingled with pride, that our 
country had such men to give, and that there were so many 
found worthy to suffer in such a cause. Let there, also, be 
the outpouring of every true heart, this day, towards every 
soldier whom God has spared. Let them see and feel once, if 
we are so selfish that we cannot show it always, that their 
toils and dangers and sufferings are appreciated ; and that, 
as years roll on, they will be held in increasing reverence 
and affection. Nor let our misled brethren of the South be 
forgotten. Let us think of their ignorance of us, of the law, 
and their duty ; of the skill, the malice, and perseverance of 
the conspirators who beguiled them ; of the sufferings they 
have endured ; of the poverty and wretchedness in which 
their folly has engulfed them ; and let us strive to live up to 
the lofty words of the Master : ' ' Love your enemies, bless 
them that curse you, do good to them that despitefully use 
you." Let us think, too, of the poor, despised race, whose 
freedom all men now see was the end of God's Providence in 
this war; and beware, lest by forgetfulness of our duty 
towards them whom this war has especially transferred to our 
care, we bring again upon us the wrath of the Most High. 
And let us swear, solemnly, and in this moment of our great 
happiness, renewed allegiance to our country, the Union, and 
the law. Let us resolve that its maintenance shall be part of 
our religion ; that we will teach it to our children ; that it shall 
be interwoven with our consciousness. Let us adopt the sen- 
timent of patriotism, as it was uttered by the great Eoman 
patriot and orator, and practiced by so many of the martyrs 
we have known : " Cari sunt parentes, cari liberi, propinqui, 
familiares, sed omnes omnium caritates patria una complexa 
est ; pro qua quis bonus dubitet mortem oppetere, si ei sit 



38 

profuturus ?" " Dear are our parents, our cliildren, our rela- 
tives, our friends, but all that we love in all of these is embo- 
died in our country — for whom, what good man would hesitate 
to welcome death, if by it she could take advantage." Let us 
meditate solemnly on that awful crime, permitted that 
men might see the lowest depth of the rebel heart, which 
deprived his country and mankind of the precious qualities 
which made up Abraham Lincoln ; and let us, in fine, resolve 
to obey, as we would the dying command of a beloved father, 
his last injunction to the people whom he loved — beautiful 
description of the purpose with which he began his second 
administration, — "With malice toward none, with charity 
for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the 
right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in ; to bind up 
the nation's wounds ; to care for him who shall have borne 
the battle, and for his widow and his orphans ; and to do all 
which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, 
among ourselves and with all nations." 



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